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AJ Kueterman

Mobile dev, generalist nerd.

Getting games from your Mac to your PS2

I recently worked through some basic issues with PS2 modding on macOS, and wanted to leave my notes.

There aren’t great guides out there for PS2 modding using a Mac. This guide just covers the steps I went through to format my SSD and get games on it from my Mac. Nothing fancy here.

What I used

  • A Free McBoot (FCMB) Memory card
  • 1TB SATA SSD
  • SATA to USB adapter
  • SATA to PS2 adapter

Format the Drive Using Your PS2 Using uLaunchELF

  1. Install your SSD into the network adapter and connect it to your PS2
  2. Boot your PS2 with the FMCB memory card
  3. Launch uLaunchELF (also called wLaunchELF) from the FMCB menu
  4. Navigate to FileBrowser → MISC → HddManager
  5. The HDD Manager should detect your new drive and show it as unformatted
  6. Press R1 to open the menu
  7. Select Format (choose 48bit HDLoader if you get an option)
  8. Wait for formatting to complete

After formatting, your drive has the correct APA partition scheme and is ready for games.

Part 2: Compile hdl-dump on Your Mac

Prerequisites

You’ll need:

  • Xcode Command Line Tools (if not installed: xcode-select --install)
  • Homebrew (if not installed: visit https://brew.sh)
  • GNU Make (install via: brew install make)
  • Git (pre-installed on Mac / with Xcode tools)

Clone and Compile hdl-dump

Open Terminal and run:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ps2homebrew/hdl-dump.git
cd hdl-dump

# Build with `make`
make RELEASE=yes IIN_OPTICAL_MMAP=no

After compilation, you’ll have hdl_dump executable in the folder.

Connect the SSD via USB

  1. Connect your SSD to your Mac via your USB-to-SATA cable
  2. Important: macOS won’t mount the drive (it’s APA format) — that’s expected, ignore warnings
  3. Find the drive’s device path:
diskutil list

Look for your 1TB SSD. It will be something like /dev/disk4 (the number varies). You should make sure it’s the exact right size as your SSD and clearly isn’t an important / other drive. Be absolutely certain you identify the correct disk!

Install Games

List installed games on the HDD:

sudo ./hdl_dump toc /dev/diskX

(Replace X with your disk number)

Install a game:

sudo ./hdl_dump inject_dvd /dev/diskX "Game Name" /path/to/game.iso

For CD-based games (some PS2 games are on CD):

sudo ./hdl_dump inject_cd /dev/diskX "Game Name" /path/to/game.iso

Verifying Installation

After installing games, verify they’re on the drive:

sudo ./hdl_dump toc /dev/diskX

You should see your games listed with their names and sizes.

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